ATV Quad Power Racing 2

The first 4-wheeling ATV racer is now available for your Cube. Should you give it a spin? Find out inside.

The difficulty in making a 4x4 off-road game is that the competition, while not numerous, is of such high quality. The current reigning king of 4x4 racing is unquestionably ATV Offroad Fury 2 on the PS2, which both looks and plays great. To make their new off-road game, ATV: Quad Power Racing 2, even worth a second look, Acclaim has to pull every card out of its sleeves and make a game that either one-ups the competition, or provides enough innovation to differentiate itself from other 4x4 games. Unfortunately, while a reasonably solid game, ATV: Quad Power Racing 2 fails to do anything but bury itself in a grave of pure mediocrity.

Gameplay Whether you've played another 4x4 game, or any other "extreme" racing game for that matter, you'll more than likely be familiar with the play mechanics of ATV: Quad Power Racing 2: You race against a multitude of other racers while performing tricks to build up points and boost. Sound something like SSX? Well, that's because the ATV: QPR 2 clearly takes its core gameplay from such titles. You can even boot the other opponents off their four-wheelers. Where it differs, or should I say falters is in its less than spectacular trick system.

What makes 4x4 games different from other racing games is the attention that needs to paid to shifting the weight of your four-wheeler. See, in off-road races, there are often jumps that will have you landing on land that is not level. Landing with too much weight on the front or the back of your vehicle can make for some glum situations, if you catch our drift. Ideally, you want to land with all four wheels hitting the ground. This makes for a smoother ride, and also helps to maintain your speed. A rudimentary but excellent example of this is in the classic NES game, Excitebike. You always wanted to land on both of your wheels after a jump, which often meant landing at an angle on another ramp/jump. This basic principle is also in effect in ATV: QPR 2, although it's a bit more involved due to the uneven ground of the tracks. Still, landing as smoothly as possible is a key factor in the races, as is knocking your opponents off their vehicles, as well as using your boost at the right moments.

The track designs in ATV: QPR 2 are pretty good with their fair share of jumps and turns, though there are a few blind turns that will have you bailing until you memorize their location. This is often the case in racing games, but it can be difficult in ATV: QPR 2 to remember where a specific turn is due to some of the track's lengths, and also due to the repetitive visuals found in the courses. Some more memorable landmarks would have helped with not only with the racing aspect, but also the visual aspect.

Another area that could have used some fine-tuning is the trick system. The responsiveness that you expect when having to pull off and string moves together just isn't as tight as it should be. There were many occasions where nothing would happen after inputting the desired move, and there's really no way to tell what went wrong. Did I press the button too early? Did I not press the right direction with the control stick? Who knows. In the end, the overall feel of the controls is just a little too stiff and sludgey when trying to pull off stunts. Not good for a game that has stunt-performing as one of its major features.

These slightly clunky controls also make their way into the on-road fighting (read: kicking). Your player has the ability to kick an adjacent player off their bike, thereby letting you pull ahead, but this is easier said than done. Kicks are slow, and trying to line up with another biker for the kill can be an exercise in frustration rather than fun. It seems that you must be in exactly the right spot to execute the move with success. There needs to be a little more leeway for it to be fun, rather than frustrating. When you do happen to get the hit just right, though, it's quite a rewarding feeling.